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Taking the ‘Waste’ Out of Nuclear Waste

While spent nuclear fuel continues to pile up by the ton across the United States, UC Irvine’s Mikael Nilsson says the solution is clear: recycle it at the commercial nuclear power plants that create it.

More than 96 percent of the waste – namely uranium and plutonium – can be used again, says the assistant professor of chemical engineering & materials science, and plants in Europe and Asia are doing just that. Nilsson’s laboratory research is focused on how to recycle or destroy the remaining 3 to 4 percent.